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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
intonation
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
pattern
▪ Tonal languages also have intonation patterns which may override the basic tone of the words.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And with a faintly questioning intonation that fitzAlan would have to be deaf to miss.
▪ As usual in intonation work in this book, punctuation is left out, since it can cause confusion.
▪ For example Practice the intonation of the model exchange.
▪ The technique of back chaining may be referred to in the teaching of intonation.
▪ There is more dicey woodwind intonation in the Eroica, and the oboe tone in the Funeral March curdles alarmingly.
▪ They speak courteously, but in a strangely mechanical way, with a flat intonation.
▪ This synthesizer is by far the best I have heard because it varies the intonation and doesn't speak like a Dalek.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Intonation

Intonation \In`to*na"tion\, n. [Cf. F. intonation. See Intone.]

  1. (Mus.)

    1. The act of sounding the tones of the musical scale.

    2. Singing or playing in good tune or otherwise; as, her intonation was false.

    3. Reciting in a musical prolonged tone; intonating, or singing of the opening phrase of a plain-chant, psalm, or canticle by a single voice, as of a priest. See Intone, v. t.

  2. The manner of speaking, especially the placement of emphasis, the cadence, and the rise and fall of the pitch of the voice while speaking.

Intonation

Intonation \In`to*na"tion\, n. [See 1st Intonate.] A thundering; thunder. [Obs.]
--Bailey.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
intonation

1610s, "opening phrase of a melody," from French intonation, from Medieval Latin intonationem (nominative intonatio), from past participle stem of intonare (see intone). Meaning "modulation of the voice in speaking" is from 1791.

Wiktionary
intonation

n. 1 (context linguistics English) The rise and fall of the voice in speaking. 2 The act of sounding the tones of the musical scale. 3 Singing or playing in good tune or otherwise. 4 Reciting in a musical prolonged tone; intonate or singing of the opening phrase of a plain-chant, psalm, or canticle by a single voice, as of a priest. 5 A thundering; thunder.

WordNet
intonation
  1. n. rise and fall of the voice pitch [syn: modulation, pitch contour]

  2. singing by a soloist of the opening piece of plainsong

  3. the act of singing in a monotonous tone [syn: chanting]

  4. the production of musical tones (by voice or instrument); especially the exactitude of the pitch relations

Wikipedia
Intonation

Intonation may refer to:

  • Intonation (linguistics), the variation of pitch used when speaking.
  • Intonation (music), a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument.
  • Intonation Music Festival, held in Chicago.
Intonation (linguistics)

In linguistics, intonation is variation of spoken pitch that is not used to distinguish words; instead it is used for a range of functions such as indicating the attitudes and emotions of the speaker, signalling the difference between statements and questions, and between different types of questions, focusing attention on important elements of the spoken message and also helping to regulate conversational interaction. It contrasts with tone, in which pitch variation in some languages distinguishes words, either lexically or grammatically. (The term tone is used by some British writers in their descriptions of intonation but to refer to the pitch movement found on the nucleus or tonic syllable in an intonation unit: see Intonation in English: British Analyses of English Intonation, below).

Although intonation is primarily a matter of pitch variation, it is important to be aware that functions attributed to intonation such as the expression of attitudes and emotions, or highlighting aspects of grammatical structure, almost always involve concomitant variation in other prosodic features. David Crystal for example says that "intonation is not a single system of contours and levels, but the product of the interaction of features from different prosodic systems – tone, pitch-range, loudness, rhythmicality and tempo in particular."

Intonation (music)

Intonation, in music, is a musician's realization of pitch accuracy, or the pitch accuracy of a musical instrument. Intonation may be flat, sharp, or both, successively or simultaneously.

Usage examples of "intonation".

Dayuma had forgotten a large part of it, and had unwittingly jumbled up Auca, Quichua, a smattering of Spanish, and a little English intonation for good measure.

French carried a Cairene intonation that went with his hawklike nose and high cheekbones.

I did not recognize the voice but I knew the style, and felt quite certain that the masquer must be one of my old friends, for she spoke with the intonations and phraseology which I had rendered popular in my chief places of resort at Paris.

And I was as excited and happy as she was when she succeeded in duplicating the intonations of the singer.

There was not a soul around, so that it seemed strange to him when all at once, almost at his elbow, he heard a politely familiar, incidentally rather pleasant voice, with that sweetly drawn-out intonation flaunted among us by overcivilized tradesmen or young, curly-headed sales-clerks from the shopping arcade.

He succeeded in mastering the idiom and the intonation of this foreign tongue, and his Parnassian accent can be discerned only by a trained ear.

But who was he, Enderby, to adapt a great tragedy to the limited talents, New World phonemes and intonations and slangy lapses, cecity towards the past, Pyrrhonism and so on of this weak cry of players?

The demand came in understandable Quechua, though with an intonation quite different from the language Mike had learned.

On the other side of the room the Colonel nodded once in silent approval, and then Saba leaned forward and responded, her intonations correct, as far as Ross could hear.

The son of a Tweeddale shepherd who had emigrated years before to a cheviot farm in Sutherland, he was in every line and feature the Lowlander, and his speech had still the broad intonation of the Borders.

A series of strange and unintimated coincidences had led him to Hollywood and New York, a profitable career as a studio musician until, in his mid thirties, intonation fled and he was left with awesome techniques that could produce music of only the foulest kind.

The honorable functionary had scarcely expressed himself thus, in that intonation which is peculiar to brigadiers of the gendarmerie, when a loud scream, accompanied by the violent ringing of a bell, resounded through the court of the hotel.

Sweigel was saying, in the rising, chantlike intonation of a preacher quoting Scripture.

The exterior mikes picked up the voice perfectly, even to the jeering, nasal and aggressive intonations of all Delink speech.

Not even all the disadvantage of nasal intonation could prevent the effect of the naturally fine voices, in airs at once wild and spirited.